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It is a scene of organized chaos that greeted Takoma Park resident Ali Kahn last weekend as she stood near the front of Roscoe's Pizzeria in Takoma Park, her hands holding a copy of her book while her eyes scanned the crowd of fellow writers she had helped assemble for the city's first author's book signing and sale.

A total of 21 local authors lined the walls of the cozy restaurant on Carroll Avenue on Sunday afternoon as friends, relatives and neighbors thronged the narrow alleyway between displays, chatting with the writers and pored over the eclectic titles. The books themselves ran the gamut from the analytic and history-based "The War Behind Me," an expose of Vietnam War crimes written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Deborah Nelson, to the whimsically amusing "Book of Days" series by Harvey Solomon, with each of the volumes examining specific dates from the 1960s and 1970s in terms of significant pop-culture occurrences.

Kahn, along with her neighbor and fellow author, Megan Scribner, first thought of the book signing a few months ago while Scribner was raking the leaves in her front yard and came over to talk with Kahn, who had just recently published her own book, "Patapsco: Life Along Maryland's Historic River Valley," with photographs by Peggy Fox.

"I had just finished the book and she said, ‘You know, it's great to be promoting this one book, but wouldn't it be great to organize an event to promote a whole group of writers?'" Kahn said. "There really are a lot of us here in Takoma Park, ... we actually had to turn away a few at the last minute, so we're hoping this will be the first-annual event."

As with any hometown event, much of the interaction between the authors and shoppers often transcended the books themselves to dwell on neighborhood issues and chit-chat. Of course, much of the appeal to shoppers to attend the event stemmed from the fact that the featured talent included close neighbors.

"I'm an artist, and I know a lot of the artists in this book," said Kathy Anderson when asked about her decision to purchase an independently published collection of poems and artwork by Takoma Park artisans. "That's why we live in this community, because we all support each other."

Many of the writers were only too excited to take advantage of the local venue to reach beyond online promotion of their largely independent works, including Stephanie Ney and Sally Brucker, two of the artisans featured in the "Inspired Results: Poets and Artists of Takoma Park," book.

"We're really excited to be here with all these other authors, because this is the first time we've ever done anything like this," Brucker said, gesturing to the crowd. "When you self-publish, it's very hard to get your book out there, so you rely on online sales and things like this."

Still other writers found comfort in the opportunity to network with their peers. Roger MacBride Allen chatted happily with the writers next to his booth about techniques and their own narratives in between conversations with passersby interested in his latest book, "Mr. Lincoln's High-Tech War," about technology used in the Civil War.

"You'll see a lot of the writers here talking to one another more so than they talk to the customers, because it's nice to find someone to talk shop with," he said. "Writing is a solitary profession that tends to attract a lot of really sociable people."

The restaurant still boasted a heavy crowd of people, even as the time neared 5 p.m., and the book sale and signing reached its final chapter. Chris Intagliata, who came a bit later to the venue, was astonished by the number of creative minds that had sprung from her hometown.

"Takoma Park; where the writers outnumber the rest of us," she said with a laugh.